Fairy Tales and STEM Skills

I was shopping at Lakeshore at the beginning of the school year and found kits they sell combining these two elements. So you are building sturdier chairs for Goldilocks and a more rugged home design for the 3 Little Pigs. I was intrigued. I think it's a great way to not only get those all important STEM skills into your daily lessons, but it's something the students can relate to.

We read the 3 Little Pigs and I decided to let the kids think like architects and build their own wolf-proof home. We watched sped-up videos of a home being built-discussed the importance of a foundation and then I split the kids up into groups to create. I decided to use marshmallows and the shorter stirring straws-gave each group the same amount. Then I stepped back and watched them create.

Now working in groups is not our forte. We still have groups where each individual student is creating their own design and I have to remind them that they should only have one house for each group. Some students sit back and don't help out. Some tell everyone else what to do--I guess it's kind of like most teams. :) So that is something we are still working on.

But when their time was up, we had some sturdy structures. I went around and played the Big Bad Wolf trying to blow them down. This one was our winner:

Here are some pics of the kiddos in action:

It's something I'm still playing with and have some other challenges in mind as we go through our different fairy tales.